Wisdom comes with age, but does happiness follow suit? Middle age is the age between our youth and old. It is just one of the stages in the developments from birth to death. But to many it strikes before they are able to figure out how, only to discover that one has left behind one’s youth and the death is looming on the horizon. This is the time when many people fall prey to depression. But it is also true that many of us overcome that depressing crisis of middle age. From one study of 2 million people in 80 countries it reveals that the middle-age years are associated with the highest risk of depression. In U.S., the average age is about 40 for women and 50 for men. Mood improves afterwards. When taken into account some of the non-biological …show more content…
This is the time when the first sign of the physical decline manifests and the questions and doubts about one’s personal and professional competence arises. It is also a matter of fact that most of us survive this critical phase reasonably. But everyone is not so lucky. Some find themselves seized by an apparently irresistible impulse to do something novel, something dramatic, quite often foolish. Everything appears is a fair game for a midlife crisis, one’s job, spouse, love, philanthropy, or …show more content…
In 1965, life expectancy then was around 65. In a traditional plot of the crisis, an individual, typically man gets panicked and makes extreme make over for some reality changes in marital status, in career, in finance, or even goes for a radical life time motivation. In today’s world, even at the age of 50 you can expect realistically as many useful years ahead of you as you have behind. Our culture has not yet adapted to that new reality and for that reason, some psychologists suggest to replace the term ‘midlife crisis’ with ‘midlife transition’ instead, and address it totally different. To look at it from another perspective, an awareness of mortality usually hits home around midlife when people's parents die. Parents are a sort of emotional buffer between oneself and death; it's not the turn yet as long as parents are alive. Most of our major life decisions about careers and family are made when we are in our 20s and early 30s, at a time when our self-understanding is not fully formed. The ‘midlife transition’ offers an opportunity to make changes to our personal and professional life based on accumulated self-knowledge at this stage, which can be sincerely
Aging and old age for a long time presented as dominated by negative traits and states such as sickness, depression and isolation. The aging process is not simply senescence most people over the age of 65 are not Senile, bedridden, isolated, or suicidal (Aldwin & Levenson, 1994). This change in perspective led the investigation of the other side of the coin. Ageing is seen as health, maturity and personal Royal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generatively, coping and acceptance of age-related constraints (Birren & Fisher, 1995). Psychological und...
Fast forward my future to what psychologist Erik Erikson identifies as the Late Adulthood (55- 65 to Death) stage of life in his Stages of Psychosocial Development. There are two options as one reflects on their lives and they include: Integrity vs. Despair. I hope through the choices I make that I am in the Integrity department of happiness and content, feeling a sense of fulfillment and meaning and that I have made a contribution to life. Of course, there may be disappointments in life and we don’t know what the future holds and although I am nervous and anxious of where I will be in the next three months and in the next thirty years, I am also optimistic and excited to see what the future has in store for me.
♂ (Ages: 40yrs. - 45yrs.) Midlife Transition: Seeking direction through times of crisis as well as value; expression towards more
When you think about life and death, are you excited to live or are you scared to die? For many people all over the world, this becomes an intense thought and concern when they’ve reached a certain age. Suddenly, their life starts to flash before their eyes but slowly, as if taunting them that their youth has been lived and death is approaching. Or so it seems. There have been many studies to determine whether or not the “midlife crisis” is fact or fiction and I believe that The Swimmer by John Cheever reflects this myth in a thought-provoking and self-assessing way.
A midlife crisis is when a person loses self-confidence and their identity (Warner, 2002, p. 1). They feel lost or down and this can happen anywhere from ages 30-50. Both men and women can experience this crisis. It normally happens when the person realizes that more than half of their life is over and they start to think about what they wish they could change.
...he final questions were used for comparison purposes with Vaillant’s longitudinal studies on personality of individuals in their 50’s and their life in their mid 70’s. “When individuals at 50 years of age were not heavy smokers, did not abuse alcohol, had a stable marriage, exercised, maintained a normal weight, and had good coping skills, they were more likely to be alive and happy at 75 to 80 years of age” (Santrock, 2013, p. 519). Neither respondent smoked, each drank less than 2 alcoholic beverages per week, they were in a stable marriage, only the male was marginally overweight, and they both had good coping skills. Based on their response and Vaillant’s study it is expected that they would fall into the “happy-well” category when they were 75 to 80 years of age.
"Middle age is when your classmates are so old and wrinkled and bald, they don’t recognize you". -Bennett Cerf
In today’s society, what was once said to be true and taken as fact regarding older people is no longer the whole story. As Laslett states, “At all times before the middle of the twentieth century and all over the globe the greater part of human life potential has been wasted, by people dying before their allotted time was up.” (1989a), and to a great extent a lot
Depression is defined as "a state of despondency marked by feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness" (Coon, 2001). Some people can mix up depression with just having the blues because of a couple of bad days or even weeks. It is already said that depression affects about one sixth of the population or more (Doris, Ebmeier, Shajahan, 1999). Depression can happen in any age range from birth to death. The cause of depression is still obscure and becoming clear that a number of diverse factors are likely to be implicated, both genetic and environmental. Some causes are leading stressful lives, genetic factors, a previous depressive episode, and the personality trait neuroticism (Doris, et al., 1999).
Middle adulthood is a complex time period that requires a multidimensional outlook to understand all of the processes and changes that are taking place. The many changes during middle adulthood include physical, cognitive and social differences. Many of these changes create significant stress and it is important to understand ways of coping with the anxiety. Many of these coping mechanisms include mindfulness and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy and mastery (pg. 482). There are many changes during middle adulthood that may require stress management techniques and interventions.
Ageing is a continuing life cycle, it is an ongoing developmental event that brings certain changes in one’s own psychological and physical state. It is a time in one's own life where an elderly individual reminisce and reflect, to bask and live on previous accomplishments and begin to finish his life cycle. There is a significant amount of adjusting that requires an elderly individual to be flexible and develop new coping skills to adapt in the changes that are common in their new life. (Dhara & Jogsan, 2013).
As individuals age they will come to a point in their lives where they are considered to be in middle adulthood. According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016), middle adulthood is the range from 30-60 which involves physical and health changes (p. 477). Some individuals may take this time to reflect on their lives and be happy will all of the things they have done and look forward to what is still to come and there may be others who feel that should have changed things or even may experience a “midlife” crisis. AllPsychologyCareers website (2016) states, “Midlife crisis is a time of great emotional upheaval, anxiety, and drastic changes in behavior (para. 13). Middle adulthood can be a time of contentment or even regret.
Late adulthood is known as the period of life after middle adulthood, usually from around 65 years old to death (Santrock, 2013, p. 485). There are many varying stages of development and health in late adulthood, along with steady changing of life expectancy. Aging is a part of life, and with it comes changes in every area of living. Many diseases find late adulthood as an opportune time to affect people. Eventually, whether caused by disease or another reason, every individual dies. Death is unique to every person, and healthcare in America is changing to reflect that. This stage of life is a time when bodily processes and functions may be decreasing, but depending on lifestyle choices, death can come at different times.
Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.
Music has been influential and involved in nearly every aspect of Japanese culture, as many Japanese folk tales were centered around music and had musical aspects. This is especially apparent in the tale Princess Hase. In the story of Princess Hase, she is a extremely skilled koto player. There have many many different musical instruments, art forms, and musical genres that have been pivotal in Japanese culture and influential in other cultures. Not only were these central to Japanese culture, but with Japan's spread it has wound up on other continents as customs. The Japanese have managed to not only find a way to incorporate music into their lives as a form of entertainment, but have also incorporated music into their daily lives and into their religious lives. The emphasis that the Japanese put on music have put on music has only brought more success to their traditional items. For the Japanese, music is not just a hobby or entertainment . But it was so much more than that. They used it on their daily lives. There are many items that, have even had a major impact on American society and American culture. For example, karaoke would be unfathomable had it not had been initiated in Japan and brought to America. Once it was brought to America, it was spread worldwide to the level that it is today, with many people participating in it to this day, to the point where there are karaoke places where karaoke is the sole attraction in the karaoke bars. The popularity of these musical instruments have also sparked interest in other instruments. For example, a lot of Japanese people learn how to play instruments, particularly stringed instruments. This is apparent in that the three instruments that were picked according to Japanese music.